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Briefs

Updated Feb. 6, 2001 5:29 a.m. ET

Chinese Tourists Arrive on Taiwanese Island for Historic Visit

A boatload of Chinese tourists arrived on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen Tuesday -- the first such authorized visit in five decades. The ferry's arrival could signal that Beijing, despite early reluctance, is willing to go along with Taiwan's new policy of allowing limited trade and shipping links between its outlying islands and China. The ship carried about 90 passengers from China's southern port city of Xiamen, about one mile from Kinmen. If the new ties flourish, they could help ease decades of hostilities across the Taiwan Strait, one of the world's...